Data Capture On A Serial Device

ABSTRACT

A system and a method are provided for enabling a user to connect a serial port of a device server to a serial device, query and capture data and settings pertaining to the serial device such that the device server can communicate and exchange data with the serial device without requiring customized programming. The device server may periodically query and capture user-specified data from the serial device. A poll configuration feature may be used to specify one or more commands which the device server will periodically query from the serial device. The response to each poll may be further sliced into a multiplicity of smaller portions according to user-specified filter rules. The captured data may be presented to other users online by way of a Web Manager, and the device server may establish machine-to-machine communications by way of XML and a Command Line Interface.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/897,169, filed Oct. 29, 2013, the entirety ofwhich is hereby incorporated in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present invention generally relates to computer network systems; andmore particularly, relates to establishing communication between aserial device and a device server.

Users of serial devices often have the need to remotely communicate withhost computing systems (for example, a personal computer, a set top box,laptop computer, notebook computer or any other computing device,collectively referred to as a “PC” throughout this specification) toextend the distance between the devices and their hosts beyond thatprovided using, for example, an RS232 cable. The desired remote distancemay span the length of an 3office building or even a continent,

Access to remote serial devices has been limited, since it was oftennecessary to physically connect a computer or PC to the serial device todownload data from the serial device to the PC, or to provide foruploading data, operating parameters or software or firmware updates tothe serial device from the PC. Fortunately, the advent of the Internetand network computing provided a method for providing remotecommunications. A demand arose to network enable older serial devices(may also be referred to as “legacy devices”) by creating products thathave a serial port and an Ethernet port, and which can accept data fromlegacy devices and send the data over a network and/or the Internet.Legacy devices may include a stand-alone vending machine, a microwave, adishwasher or any other device that has a controller or processor, evenif the controller or processor is limited in its computing capability.Alternatively, legacy devices can include devices that have significantcomputing capabilities, such as a FAX machine, a copier, a printer andthe like.

Today, the creation of device server technology in embedded systemsallows users to place legacy serial devices onto Ethernet networks, andthus, the Internet, with minimal effort and with limited knowledge ofnetworking on the part of the user.

Many consumer applications and legacy serial devices are designed tocommunicate via a local serial communication port (a “COM” port) to a PCthrough a wired connection, and thus are network incompatible.Information flow between the serial device and the PC is typicallyaccomplished using the RS232 standard communication scheme. Thus, theonly way to make a legacy serial device network compatible in the pastrequired each serial device to be connected to a PC wherein informationwas communicated through the network to the PC, which then communicatedthe information to the serial device.

It is clear that a more cost effective approach would be to connect alegacy serial device to a device server that would then provide networkconnectivity to the serial device. Once such device is the xPico® andxPico® WiFi® embedded device server manufactured and distributed byLantronix, Inc.

One problem is that different types of serial devices require differentsettings and configurations, which requires a way for the device serverto be programmed to communicate with the legacy serial device. Thus,upon initially connecting a device server to a legacy serial device andpowering up, an initial state of the serial device is unknown, as wellas the data configuration needed for communication between the deviceserver and the legacy device.

Therefore, there is a need for a device server which is essentially“teachable” such that the device server can communicate and exchangedata with a wide variety of different legacy devices without requiringcustom programming.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In its most general aspects, the invention includes a system and amethod for enabling a user to connect a serial port of a device serverto a serial device, query and capture data and settings pertaining tothe serial device such that the device server can communicate andexchange data with the serial device without requiring customizedprogramming. The device server may periodically query and captureuser-specified data from the serial device. A poll configuration featuremay be used to specify one or more commands which the device server willperiodically query from the serial device. The response to each poll maybe further sliced into a multiplicity of smaller portions according touser-specified filter rules. The captured data may be displayed ortransmitted to a user, or provided to another piece of equipment thatreceives the captured data for further processing.

In another aspect, the invention includes a system for collectinginformation from a serial device, comprising: a processor; a memoryaccessible by the processor; a serial port in communication with theprocessor for coupling the processor to a serial device; a network portin communication with processor for coupling the processor to a network;and a device server running on the processor, the device server having adata capture module configurable to capture data received by the deviceserver from the serial device, the data capture module including a userinterface allowing a user to manipulate inputs of the data capture modelto configure the data capture model to communicate with the serialdevice and to extract selected data from the data received from theserial device. In another aspect, the user interface is presented to auser remote from the device server through the network.

In yet another aspect, the user interface provides for inputtingparameters used by the data capture module of the device server toconfigure a polling message to be transmitted to a serial device coupledto the serial port, and also to configure a selected time during whichthe data capture module waits for a response to the transmitted pollingmessage from the serial device. In one alternative aspect, the userinterface provides a display of the response to the transmitted pollingmessage received from the serial device.

In still another aspect, the user interface provides for inputtingparameters used by the data capture module of the device server tofilter a response from a serial device coupled to the serial port to apolling message transmitted from the data capture module to the serialdevice. In one alternative aspect, the inputted parameters comprise arule, with the rules defining a filter having an input and an output. Inanother alternative aspect, the inputted parameters may comprise aplurality of rules, with each of the plurality of rules comprising afilter having an input and an output. In still another alternativeaspect, the output of one of the filters feeds the input of anotherfilter.

In yet another aspect, the user interface further provides for inputtingat least one selector parameter that defines a selector, the selectorused by the data capture module to identify specific data contained inthe output of the filter. In an alternative aspect, the user interfacefurther provides for selection of a display template for displaying thespecific data to the user.

In another aspect, the invention includes a method of configuring adevice server to communicate with and capture data from a serial devicecoupled to the device server, comprising: providing a user interface forconfiguring a device server to communicate with a serial device and tointerpret information received from the serial device; inputting pollingparameters using the user interface to formulate a polling message to betransmitted from the device server to the serial device; transmittingthe polling message from the device server to the serial device;receiving a response to the polling message transmitted by the deviceserver to the serial device from the serial device; defining at leastone filter and applying the at least one filter to parse the responsefrom the serial device; and defining at least one data selector andapplying the at least one data selector to the parsed response from theserial device to select data to be transmitted to a user.

In one alternative aspect, formulating a polling message includesdefining a listening interval during which a response to the pollingmessage is expected. In still another alternative aspect, defining theat least one filter includes defining an input and an output for the atleast one filter. A further alternative aspect includes defining aplurality of filters, each of the plurality of filters having an inputand an output. In another alternative aspect, the output of at least oneof the plurality of filters feeds the input of another one of theplurality of filters.

In a further aspect, the method includes displaying the selected data tothe user.

In still another aspect, the user interface is provided by the deviceserver to the user over a network. A further aspect includes displayingthe selected data to the user over a network.

In still another aspect, the user interface provides for selecting asoftware program for use in displaying the selected data.

In one alternative aspect, the user interface is a graphical userinterface. In another alternative aspect, the user interface is acommand line interface. In still another alternative aspect, the userinterface is an XML interface.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, theprinciples of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way ofexample, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of theaccompanying drawings and in which like reference numerals refer tosimilar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the connection of a serialdevice to a device server;

FIG. 2 is a graphical representation illustrating a network thatprovides access to the device server of FIG. 1 to allow a user toconfigure the device server to receive and report information and datareceived from the serial device;

illustrates an initialization setup step performed within a MonitorExplorer, wherein an initial state of an external serial device isunknown;

FIG. 3 illustrates a setup initialization page of a Monitor Explorerprogram running on a processor of the device driver of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates an initialization setup page of a Serial PeripheralInterface port to an external slave device according to some embodimentsusing a Monitor Configuration program running on the processor of devicedriver of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 illustrates utilizing the Monitor Explorer to place a serialdevice into a known initial state, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates the Monitor Explorer displaying the results ofchanging the initialization parameters set using the screen of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorer programused to input commands for controlling the polling of the serial deviceby the device driver of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorer programdepicting expanding the screen of FIG. 7 to allow modification ofparameters of the polling configuration of the device driver of FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Configurationprogram that may be used to directly enter polling configurationparameters to configure the device driver.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorerdisplaying the results of the parameter modification performed using thescreens of FIGS. 8 and 9.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorer programthat may be used to configure filters to be applied to data received bythe device driver from the serial device when the serial device ispolled by the device driver;

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorer programdisplaying the result of rules that have been configured in the Explorerprogram to filter data received from the serial device by the deviceserver;

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary screen of a Monitor Configurationprogram that may be used to directly configure the rules that areapplied to data received from a serial device;

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorer programused to configure parameters to establish selectors that are applied tothe output of rules to specify data to be captured from the raw datareceived by the device server from the serial device;

FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorer programshowing an expansion of the screen of FIG. 14 that allows configurationof individual parameters defining a selector;

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Configurationprogram that is used to directly modify data selection parameters;

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary screen of the Monitor Explorer programshowing the configuration of polling messages, rules and data selectorsthat will be applied to raw data received by the device driver from theserial device;

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary screen showing the results ofsubmitting the configuration depicted in FIG. 17 to be stored in thememory of the device server;

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary screen showing the display generated bya Monitor Status feature;

FIG. 20 illustrates using a command line interface to display data minedfrom the raw data received from the serial device by the device serverusing the configuration depicted in FIG. 17;

FIG. 21 illustrates using XML programming to display data mined from theraw data received from the serial device by the device server using theconfiguration depicted in FIG. 17;

FIG. 22 illustrates a screen of a File System Browser feature of a WebManager software to select a program and format to be used to displaydata produced by the various embodiments of the invention; and

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary screen of the output of the of theselection of the program and format of FIG. 22.

Various embodiments may incorporate one or more of these and otherfeatures described herein while remaining within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Further features of the present invention, its nature,and various advantages and embodiments will be more apparent byreference to the accompanying drawings and the following detaileddescription of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth,such as examples of specific data signals, named components,connections, number of memory columns in a group of memory columns, andthe like, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the presentinvention. It will be apparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in theart that the present invention may be practiced without these specificdetails. In other instances, well known components or methods have notbeen described in detail but rather in a block diagram in order to avoidunnecessarily obscuring the present invention. Further specific numericreferences such as “first driver,” may be made. However, the specificnumeric reference should not be interpreted as a literal sequentialorder but rather interpreted that the “first driver” is different than a“second driver.” Thus, the specific details set forth are merelyexemplary. The specific details may be varied from and still becontemplated to be within the spirit and scope of the present invention.The term “coupled” is defined as meaning connected either directly tothe component or indirectly to the component through another component.

In general, a system and method are provided which enables a user toconnect a serial port of a device server to a serial port of a serialdevice, query and capture data and settings pertaining to the serialdevice such that the device server can communicate and exchange datawith the serial device without requiring customized programming. Thedevice server may periodically query and capture user-specified datafrom the serial device. A poll configuration feature may be used tospecify one or more commands which the device server will periodicallyquery from the serial device. The response to each poll may be furthersliced into a multiplicity of fields according to user-specified filterrules. The captured data may be presented to other users online by wayof a Web Manager, and the device server may establish machine-to-machinecommunications by way of XML and a Command Line Interface.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment depicting the connection of adevice server 10 to a serial device 15. The device server includes, butis not limited to, a processor 20 and a memory 25 which is in operablecommunication with the processor 20. The device server 10 also includesa serial port 30 and an Ethernet port 35. The device server alsoincludes a communication interface (not shown), which couples theprocessor to the serial port 30 and Ethernet port 25.

The processor 20 is configured and controlled using programmingconsisting of various software commands which may be stored in memory25. The processor operates in accordance with software commands to carryout the functions of a server to facilitate communications between thedevice server and the serial device 15. The programming may be writtenin any suitable programming language that is capable of being run by theprocessor, in compiled form in some instances, and in as written form inother instances, such as when providing network services based onhypertext markup language.

Throughout the description reference will be made to various softwareprograms and hardware components that provide and carryout the featuresand functions of the various embodiments of the present invention.Software programs may be embedded onto a machine-readable medium. Amachine-readable medium includes any mechanism that provides, stores ortransmits information in a form readable by a machine, such as forexample, a computer, server or other such device. For example, amachine-readable medium includes read only memory (ROM); random accessmemory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flashmemory devices; digital video disc (DVD); EPROMs; EEPROMs; flash memory;magnetic or optical cards; or any type of media suitable for storingelectronic instructions.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions are presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like. These algorithms may be written in a numberof different software programming languages. Also, an algorithm may beimplemented with lines of code in software, configured logic gates insoftware, or a combination of both.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussions, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers, or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

In an embodiment, the logic consists of electronic circuits that followthe rules of Boolean Logic, software that contain patterns ofinstructions, or any combination of both.

Referring again to FIG. 1, device server 20 communicates with serialdevice 15 over serial connection 40, which may be a serial cable capableof carrying signals confirming to the RS232 standard between the deviceserver and the serial device, Serial connection 40 connects serial port30 of the device server to serial port 45 of the serial device.

Device server 20 also includes Ethernet port 35, which facilitatesconnection to a wired Ethernet based network. Alternatively, deviceserver may also include a wireless transmitter/receiver 50 which isconfigured to be controlled by the processor 20 to send and receiveinformation through antenna 45 through a wireless network.

FIG. 2 depicts one embodiment illustrating a network enabled controlsystem 60 for communicating with a serial device 75. In this embodiment,device server 70 is coupled through network/cloud 65 to a user 80.Device server 70 is also coupled by communication line 85 to serialdevice 75 through the serial ports of both devices. As discussed above,device server 70 may be coupled wirelessly, or through a wired network,such as an Ethernet network, or the Internet to user 80. User 80 willtypically be a computer having a processor, input/output device such asa keyboard, mouse or other input means, and a display, memory andcommunication interface.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the network/cloudmay comprise one or more servers, databases, and associated memory orother storage facilities, as well as appropriate communication circuitryand interfaces to facilitate information flow between the user anddevice server. Various software programs may also be run on the User'sprocessor, the device server, and any or all of the servers comprisingthe network to allow for bidirectional communication of informationthrough the network.

For example, device server 70 may include software that provides agraphic user interface (GUI), or a command line architecture, that canbe accessed by a user to communicate with, configure, and control theprocessor of the server. One such program may be program such as aMonitor Explorer, one screen of which is illustrated in FIG. 3. Usingsuch a program as Monitor Explorer to provide a GUI allows forconfiguration and use of the device server 70 by a user to capture datafrom serial device 75 without requiring specialized programming.Moreover, since the device server 70 is network enabled, the user mayconfigure, operate, and capture data from serial device 75 remotely,that is, from a location that is remote from either device server 70,serial device 75, or both.

Monitor Explorer is an embodiment of a software program that is storedin the memory 25 of device server 10 (FIG. 1). Alternatively, theMonitor Explorer program may be firmware embedded in the processor. Ineither case the Monitor Explorer program provides an interface betweenthe device server and the user so that the user can explore thecommunication requirements and settings of the serial device through thedevice server, and then configure the device server to transmit andreceive information and data from the serial device which can then betransmitted through the network to the user, or to some other entitythat wishes to receive the information and/or data from the serialdevice.

The Monitor Explorer program may also be accessed through a program suchas a web manager program that is stored in the memory of the deviceserver. A user, upon connecting to the device server, may log into theweb manager, and, upon validation of the user's right to access thedevice server, may be presented with various programs or sub-programsthat may be called using in the web manager.

Typically, device server 70 will not be directly coupled to a display oruser input/output devices. Accordingly, the processor of device server70 is accessed by a user indirectly, through a network connection.Accordingly, the examples and description below may be assumed tocontemplate that a person using the GUI described below has alreadylogged into the device server.

When an external serial device is initially connected to the deviceserver 70, the initial state of the external serial device is unknown tothe device server. Accordingly, a screen such as that depicted in FIG. 3is presented to the user, indicating that the status of the serialdevice is unknown.

FIG. 3 depicts one embodiment of a software program, hereinafteridentified for exemplary purposes only as a web manager 100, thatprovides various functions for monitoring and controlling a devicecontroller to which is connected a serial device. Web manager 100includes a column 105 in which are displayed various tabs, each tabassociated with a particular function of the web manager program. Forexample, column 105 includes a “monitor” tab 110.

As shown in FIG. 3, the display also includes a central portion 107,which includes various soft keys or buttons (tabs or hot spots that canbe activated using a touch screen, or which can be accessed usingtraditional pointing techniques, such as arrow keys or a mouse) such asa “Status” button 115, an “Explore” button 120, and a “Configuration”button 125. As will be discussed in greater detail below, activating oneof the buttons results in a sub-program call that displays variousscreens associated with the particular button activated. These displaysare configured to display information, allow for input of commands andparameter values, or both. Other soft keys or buttons may beincorporated into various areas of the central portion 107 to facilitateselection of a particular function or feature of the software program.

The central portion 107 also includes areas that are designated for thedisplay of information or data that is communicated to the user. Undercertain circumstances, the program may display information to the user,and also provide an area for the user to enter a command or response.Column 108 typically provides information to the user to assist the userin interpreting and/or responding to data, information, or commandrequests presented by the program in central portion 107.

Upon connecting the serial device to the device server, a user mayselect Monitor from the tabs of column 105 to determine the status ofthe serial device. At this time, the user may select the “Explore”button 120 to “explore” the serial device to determine the serialdevice's initial state.

Alternatively, the user may access an alternative embodiment, shown inFIG. 4, by selecting “SPI” tab 150 from column 105. Activating this tabdisplays the screen shown in FIG. 4 using a Serial Peripheral Interface(SPI) bus when the device driver is connected to an external slavedevice. The initial state of the slave device is displayed in an SPIConfiguration screen. Entries made using this screen take effectimmediately.

In one embodiment, the “Explore” feature of the Monitor program providesa sequence of five display pages to the user that may be used todetermine the proper settings to communicate with the serial device aswell as make entries to configure the device server to communicate withthe serial device. The “Configuration” button 125 may also be activatedfrom any of the displayed pages to go directly to an applicableconfiguration page and make specific changes. The device monitoringstatus may also be viewed by activating the “Status” button 115.

The screens that are displayed to the user may be used to determine theoutput provided by the serial device and also to allow the user tocreate data parsing rules for selecting specific data from the stream ofdata produced by the serial device. All of this may be accomplished inreal time without the need for the user to write complicatedprogramming, and the results of the user entries may be tested in realtime to determine if the entered rules and other parameters provide thedesired data. Once the rules and parameters are entered, they may bestored in the memory of the device driver, and then are used by theprocessor of the device driver to interpret and parse the incomingstream of data from the serial device to provide data desired by theuser to be transmitted through the Ethernet port of the device server tothe user over a network or the Internet.

In one embodiment, the five pages presented to the user when accessingthe “Explorer” program include: a setup initiation page; a setupcommands page; a define filters page; a pick data page; and a confirmand submit changes page.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a screen presenting the setupinitialization page screen f the Monitor Explorer program. As shown, thesetup initialization page may be used to send one or more messages tothe serial device so as to bring the serial device into a known state.For example, a Message 160 may be created that is sent to the serialdevice to determine the device's status. Message 160, in thisembodiment, comprises four fields which are accessed by activating the“Edit” button or soft key 165 for that message. The fields of the stringthat comprises Message 1 (and all the messages shown in FIG. 5), are, inorder: command, entered in binary format, such as for example [0x0d] fora carriage return or enter key command; end character; length of theresponse; and timeout, which is the minimum time the device server willwait for a response. Once these parameters are entered by the user, theuser activates the “Submit” button or soft key 170.

FIG. 6 illustrates the response from the serial device when the submitbutton 170 is activated. As shown, four messages submitted resulted inresponses from the serial device that are shown in area 180.

Once the initial setup is completed, the “Next” button 175 is activatedwhich changes the display screen to the setup commands page shown inFIG. 7. Using this page, the user can modify each of the messagestransmitted by the device server to the serial device. Further, the datadisplayed for each Message pertain to the poll settings for the device.A poll refers to how often the device server will send a message to theserial device.

For example, to modify Message 1, the user activates “Edit” button 190,which expands the screen display as depicted in FIG. 8 to show thevalues for each of the fields that comprise the string of Message 1.This page provides the user with entry fields for each of the fieldscomprising the string of parameters which makes up Message 1. Theexpanded display can be compressed by activating the “hide” button 200.

As shown, the values for the command, end character, length and timeoutfields can be modified. As described above, each time the device servertransmits (or polls) the message to the serial device, the commandidentified in the command field sent to the device should evoke aresponse from the serial device. The character end field identifies acharacter that the device server looks for that identifies the end of aresponse from the serial device to the transmitted command. The lengthfield sets the maximum length of the response, and the timeout fieldsets the length of time the device server will wait for a response fromthe serial device. Each of the configuration parameters may be modifiedon this page.

Alternatively, the user may activates the Monitor “Configuration” button125 to directly modify one or more poll settings. This alters thedisplay to that illustrated in FIG. 9. Use of this page allows the userto change the settings of each message so as to optimize communicationwith the serial device until acceptable initiation settings aredetermined.

In an embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 10, the Monitor Explorer programmay be used to test the commands selected in the Monitor PollConfiguration feature, enabling the user to view an immediate responsefrom the serial device. For example, as shown in area 180, Message 1 wasaltered from exit[0x0d], with a timeout of 500 milliseconds toshow[0x0d], with a timeout of 200 milliseconds. The Display field 130was altered to display the result of Message 1, the results of which areshown directly below in area 135.

In an exemplary embodiment, the response to each poll may be sliced intosmaller portions according to user-specified filter rules. Slicing thedata advantageously facilitates later access to the desired data,without having to search through large quantities of unneeded data. Inone embodiment, the user may examine the form of the response receivedfrom a particular poll, looking for clues in the response to locatedesired information. The user may further determine whether the form ofthe response may include variations depending on the state of the serialdevice.

The rules for slicing the poll responses are configured by accessing theDefine filter page, as illustrated in FIG. 11. In this embodiment, theuser may utilize Monitor Explorer, or may directly configure the rulesettings in a Monitor Filter Configuration feature. The response fromthe poll is shown in area 195. The user typically analyzes this responseto determine what data the user is interested in.

For example, the user may be interested in the value for the “Uptime”parameter, identified by reference numeral 205. As shown in FIG. 11using the Monitor Explorer program, Rule 1 has no definition parameters.Rule 1 can be modified from this screen by activating the “Edit” button200 to focus in on the “Uptime” parameter.

As will be apparent, many different rules may be established to parsethe data and information provided by the serial device to the poll ofthe device server. Rules are generally performed sequentially, but eachrule can point to either raw source (0) or a result of a previous rule(R.f). In one embodiment, each rule may slice the raw input from theserial device into multiple fields (f). Thus, the nomenclature R.frefers to a particular sliced result selected from the rule.

FIG. 12 illustrates setting up an exemplary series of rules to identifyand slice the response contained in area 195 of FIG. 11 into usableinformation. In this example, Rule 1is comprised of a series ofparameters that are used to point to the first carriage returnindicating the beginning of a field of data as transmitted by the serialdevice. A rule is configured sung as many as six parameters, but mayalso be configured using less than six parameters, depending on the modeconfiguration selected.

The first of the six rule configuration parameters is source, whichindicates the input of the filter or rule. In the example shown in FIG.12, Rule 1 has a source of 0, which indicates that the input of Rule 1is the raw response received by the device server from the serial devicewhen it was polled. Rule 2, in contrast, has a source parameter of 1.6,indicating that, in R.f notation, it filters for information containedin the sixth field of the output of Rule 1.

The second rule configuration parameter sets the mode of the rule. Inone embodiment, the possible values include: all, delimiters, or binary.

The third mode configuration parameter defines one or more delimitersthat are applied with the rule, but is only displayed if delimiter modeis selected when entering the mode parameter, as described above, Thenumber of delimiters to be applied is identified, as well as a binarystring that is used to separate each delimited portion of the response.Delimiters are not included in a trunk of data. As shown in the displayof the parameters for Rule 1, delimiter mode is selected, and the binarystring separating information trunks is [0x0d, 0x0a].

The fourth rule configuration parameter identifies a start index toindicate when delimiters start breaking input into trunks, if delimitermode is selected.

The fifth rule configuration parameter, is an offset parameter, which isused to set the size of the first trunk of data if binary mode isselected.

A sixth rule configuration parameter is a length parameter, which, whenthe binary mode is selected, specifies the size of a second trunk ofdata created by the binary filter, if the binary mode is selected. Inthis mode, a third trunk of data created by the binary filter willcontain the remainder of the raw input.

Using the parameters defined above, Rules 1 and 2 are applied to the rawinput displayed in area 195 of FIG. 11 are displayed in the responsearea 210 of FIG. 12. In this example, as indicated above, Rules 1 and 2are configured to find the value for “Uptime” that is contained in theoutput of the serial device. Applying the rules to the output of theserial device yields a value for “Uptime” as 8 days 00:08.30. As shown,the display has been set to display the response as filtered by Rule 2.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary alternative embodiment whereby theConfiguration feature of the Monitor Explorer is utilized to set thefilter parameters for various rules that will be applied to the datastream received from the serial device. This example illustrates how thefilters can be defined using the binary mode, using user selected offsetand length parameters.

Once the user has created one or more filters, the user may select theparticular data to be mined, so as to present the data to other users orto one or more machines on the network. In an exemplary embodiment, theuser may have created multiple polls and filters, and different filtersmay generally apply to each of the multiple polls, though some filtersmay be applicable to more than one poll. However, since all of theslicing of the raw data is virtual, and thus all of the filter rulesoverlay raw data from each response to a poll, the user need only beconcerned with the rules pertaining to a particular poll message.

Once the rules and polling frequency for analyzing the data streamreceived from the serial device have been established, the user may thenconfigure the device driver using the Monitor Explorer program to selectspecific data from the data stream to be displayed or transmitted to theuser. In an exemplary embodiment, illustrated in FIGS. 14-15, the usermay utilize Monitor Explorer or directly configure settings in a MonitorData Configuration feature, as depicted in FIG. 16, to specify the datafrom the output of the Rules that have been applied that is desired forfurther display or analysis.

In Monitor Explorer, clicking the “Next” button on the “Define filters”page takes the user to the “Pick data” page, shown in FIG. 14. When thepick data page is displayed, two fields are displayed in area 250identifying one or more “Selectors” that are used to identify the datathat will be selected to be transmitted to the user or another piece ofequipment that will use the data, or report the data. The first fieldidentifies the particular selector, and the second field identifies theparameters of the Selector.

Multiple Selectors can be defined to select multiple data items from theresults of the applications of the one or more rules previously definedand applied to the raw data received from the serial device by thedevice server. Activating the “Edit” button 255 associated with aparticular Selector causes the display of the screen depicted in theFIG. 15, which provides for modifying the parameters of each Selector.

In an embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 15, each Selector has a SelectorName, a Response, and a Reference. The Selector Name is presented as acaption for the data associated with the Selector. The Response is apoll message number. The Reference is a rule number, dot, and a fieldnumber (R.f), which specifies the data field associated with theSelector.

Alternatively, the one or more Selectors (if any) may be configuredusing the “Configuration” program that is accessed by activating the“Configuration” button 125, as depicted in FIG. 16, When the “Data”button 300 is then activated, the data configuration screen is shown,which is similar in function to that described with reference to FIG.15.

Once the user has configured the desired Selectors, the user may selectthe Confirm and submit changes screen of the Monitor Explorer asillustrated in FIG. 17 to review the parameters for the messages, rulesand selectors set by the user to mine data from the raw input receivedby the device server from the serial device. As shown, each parametermay be further altered by activating the appropriate “Edit” button. Whenthe user is satisfied with the configuration, the user may activate the“Submit” button to permanently change the configuration stored in thememory of the device server, the results of which are presented to theuser as depicted in FIG. 18.

In an exemplary embodiment, the user may consider options for sharingthe data that was mined utilizing the various embodiments describedabove. In an embodiment, a Web page may be used for presenting the datato other users. In another embodiment, XML may be used to present thedata for machine-to-machine communications. In still another embodiment,a Command Line Interface may be used for both machine-to-machinecommunications and other users.

In an embodiment illustrated in FIG. 19, the mined data is automaticallypresented upon utilizing the Monitor Status feature in the Web Manager.In another embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 20, the data may beautomatically displayed by way of a Command Line Interface. In stillanother embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 21, the mined data may beautomatically displayed using XML programming code.

In an exemplary embodiment, data received from a serial device may bepresented to a user through the Web Manager software running on theprocessor of the device server. Typically, however, the data thatresults from application of the various Messages, Rules and Selectors ofthe various embodiments described above needs to be formatted in amanner that allows the data to be presented or transmitted in a usefulmanner.

For example, in the case where a Serial Peripheral Interface port of thedevice server is connected to an external SPI slave device, the data maybe communicated to the device server in a binary format, which isprocessed as described above. The binary form of data from the SPI mustbe converted to an appropriate format before being presented. In anembodiment, the binary data may be converted by using HTML and/orJavaScript programs that are loaded into and run by the processor of thedevice server.

FIG. 22 illustrates one embodiment of a compressed JavaScript chartlibrary (i.e., dygraph.combined.js.gz) and a customized device home page(i.e., index.html) that may be selected and run by a user of a FileSystem Browser feature of the Web Manager to display desired data thathas been extracted from the raw data stream received by the deviceserver from the serial device using the various embodiment describedabove. FIG. 23 illustrates one embodiment of the customized JavaScriptchart library presented on the customized device home page, illustratingprocess and room temperature as a fimction of time, as measured by oneor more serial temperature sensing devices that are monitored by adevice server using the systems and methods of the various embodimentsof the present invention described above. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that other software programs or languages may be used toconvert the processed data from the device server into a useable formwithout departing from the contemplated scope of the invention.

While the user interface of the present invention has be described withreference to a graphical user interface, as shown in the drawings, thedevice server configuration settings may be explored and/or alteredusing alternative interface designs and methods. For example, a textbased interface, such as, but not limited to, a command line interface,may be used. In one embodiment, a user enters a parameter name followedby a parameter value on a command line displayed to the user.

In another alternative embodiment, an XML interface may be used. In oneembodiment, the user supplies parameter names and desired values usingan XML interface which provides the device server with the parameternames and values in a machine readable format.

Various embodiments may incorporate one or more of these and otherfeatures described herein while remaining within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Further features of the present invention, its nature,and various advantages and embodiments will be apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art by reference to the accompanying drawings andthe above summary of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.

We claim:
 1. A system for collecting information from a serial device,comprising: a processor; a memory accessible by the processor; a serialport in communication with the processor for coupling the processor to aserial device; a network port in communication with processor forcoupling the processor to a network; and a device server running on theprocessor, the device server having a data capture module configurableto capture data received by the device server from the serial device,the data capture module including a user interface allowing a user tomanipulate inputs of the data capture model to configure the datacapture model to communicate with the serial device and to extractselected data from the data received from the serial device.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the user interface is presented to a userremote from the device server through the network.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the user interface provides for inputting parametersused by the data capture module of the device server to configure apolling message to be transmitted to a serial device coupled to theserial port, and also to configure a selected time during which the datacapture module waits for a response to the transmitted polling messagefrom the serial device.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the userinterface provides a display of the response to the transmitted pollingmessage received from the serial device.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein the user interface provides for inputting parameters used by thedata capture module of the device server to filter a response from aserial device coupled to the serial port to a polling messagetransmitted from the data capture module to the serial device.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein the inputted parameters comprise a rule, withthe rules defining a filter having an input and an output.
 7. The systemof claim 6, wherein the inputted parameters may comprise a plurality ofrules, with each of the plurality of rules comprising a filter having aninput and an output.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the output of oneof the filters feeds the input of another filter.
 9. The system of claim6, wherein the user interface further provides for inputting at leastone selector parameter that defines a selector, the selector used by thedata capture module to identify specific data contained in the output ofthe filter.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the user interfacefurther provides for selection of a display template for displaying thespecific data to the user.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the userinterface is a graphical interface.
 12. The system of claim 1, whereinthe user interface is a command line interface.
 13. The system of claim1, wherein the user interface is an XML interface.
 14. A method ofconfiguring a device server to communicate with and capture data from aserial device coupled to the device server, comprising: providing a userinterface for configuring a device server to communicate with a serialdevice and to interpret information received from the serial device;inputting polling parameters using the user interface to formulate apolling message to be transmitted from the device server to the serialdevice; transmitting the polling message from the device server to theserial device; receiving a response to the polling message transmittedby the device server to the serial device from the serial device;defining at least one filter and applying the at least one filter toparse the response from the serial device; and defining at least onedata selector and applying the at least one data selector to the parsedresponse from the serial device to select data to be transmitted to auser.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein formulating a polling messageincludes defining a listening interval during which a response to thepolling message is expected.
 16. The method of claim 14, whereindefining the at least one filter includes defining an input and anoutput for the at least one filter.
 17. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising defining a plurality of filters, each of the plurality offilters having an input and an output.
 18. The method of claim 17,wherein the output of at least one of the plurality of filters feeds theinput of another one of the plurality of filters.
 19. The method ofclaim 14, further comprising displaying the selected data to the user.20. The method of claim 14, wherein the user interface is provided bythe device server to the user over a network.
 21. The method of claim20, further comprising displaying the selected data to the user over anetwork.
 22. The method of claim 20, wherein the user interface providesfor selecting a software program for use in displaying the selecteddata.
 23. The method of claim 14, wherein the user interface is agraphical user interface.
 24. The method of claim 14, wherein the userinterface is a command line interface.
 25. The method of claim 14,wherein the user interface is an XML interface.